Northern Ireland's Cookie Jar wins in World Bread Awards

Northern Ireland artisan bakery Cookie Jar has won the Irish Wheaten category in the prestigious World Bread Awards 2018.

The small bakery, based at Newcastle, county Down, won the category, one of 15 in the awards, for its Traditional Irish Wheaten Bannock. The family-owned bakery has also won UK Great Taste and Blas na hEireann, Irish National Food awards for its hand-baked breads.

Runner up in this category was another family bakery, Ann's Pantry, from Larne in county Antrim, a small company which has also won Great Taste Awards for its breads.

Third placed in the category, which is sponsored by Food NI, the Belfast-based body which promotes smaller food and drink companies in particular, was Deli-Lites of Warrenpoint in country Down. Deli-Lites is a leading producer of food-to-go solutions including baked goods.

Wheaten bread is described as "an oven-baked loaf made with a blend of flours and leavened with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and buttermilk, sometimes known as soda bread".

Yellow Door, based at Portadown in county Down, was runner-up in the Showstopper category, which is sponsored by Tiptree, for its Banofee Brioche. This category is for the 'best and most creative bread using a Tiptree product as an ingredient'.

The unique awards not only celebrate the skill of bread-making at its most diverse and inspiring, but also seek to encourage and foster the art of baking both now and for the future generation

The competition is open to artisan bread makers, small high street bakers, home bread-makers, trainee bakers - the next generations.

Bread is a huge industry in the UK - 12 million loaves are sold every day. The phenomenon of the artisan bakery has taken off in the last decade. Not only is commercially-made bread popular, but home-baking is massively on the rise too.